Category Archives: Disclosure and Diligence

As some readers have observed, there is a lively controversy regarding an influential recent paper by Reinhart and Rogoff. Herndon et al (of Raymond Bradley’s UMass-Amhertst) concluded that RR’s conclusions depended on a bad weighting method, inexplicable exclusion of data from certain countries and years and even an Excel coding error. All the sorts of […]

The presentations to the UK Parliamentary Committee are online and many are very interesting. Take a look at the submission by UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas here who adhere nicely to the policy issues. Here is part of his testimony – testimony that is far more compelling than the flaccid prevarications coming from the likes […]

I reported here on my efforts to get the WGIII Review Editors’ comments back online together with the Lead Authors’ Responses and the Review Editors’ Reports. I had sent Patrick Matschoss, the head of AR5 WGIII TSU an open letter for him to put to the IPCC Bureau urging an open and transparent process in […]

is an engaging account by Rick Trebino of Georgia Tech on his experience in trying to publish a scientific comment in a field far less controversial than climate science. Readers can doubtless think of analogous experience in climate science. (h/t Chas) Trebino was stonewalled by the authors when he sought data and methods – again […]

Jeff Id on the Air Vent has written a post pointing out the recent publication online of a report by the Committee on Ensuring the Utility and Integrity of Research Data in a Digital Age from the National Academy of Sciences: Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age. I […]

A couple of months ago, I posted on the EPA Endangerment Finding. In Canada, the government would just go ahead and pass the regulations without the long U.S. regulatory processes. In practical terms, some odd coalitions can form for specific policies between people who are worried about energy supply or the impact of energy imports […]

Bruce McCullough and Ross McKitrick today published an interesting article under the auspices of the Fraser Institute entitled Check the Numbers: The Case for Due Diligence in Policy Formation. Their abstract states: Empirical research in academic journals is often cited as the basis for public policy decisions, in part because people think that the journals […]

After nearly 2 months and several inquiries, the editor of the International Journal of Climatology has finally said that they do not require authors to provide supporting data. Given that funding agencies rely on academic journals to ensure that authors archive data (improperly abdicating their own responsibilities), the moral of this should be that the […]

Based on my limited experience, it seems to me that journal peer reviewing faces an interesting challenge with the increased use of Supplementary Information (and I absolutely endorse detailed SI and obviously encourage even more detailed SI). In a very non-random of articles that I know inside-out (Team journal publications), my conclusion is that, in […]